Please help--Cyclone Gonu awareness

  Muscat, Oman
Friday, June 15, 2007

Someone used to live here

Cyclone Gonu struck Muscat approximately 7 June 2007.  Whether or not you heard about this on the news, it was a freak accident and a major calamity in this region.  It left an unprecedented amount of destruction in its path, which I was later witness to when I visited Muscat.

I mentioned in my previous entry that I only went to the outskirts of Muscat.  Apparently, Muhammad told me, entire sections of the center of Muscat have been cordoned off, and only governmental officials and other such people can enter.  This is where there is the real destruction.  People there are living in tents, have no running water, etc.

Smashed car

  Here's something you might not realize.  Most people in Muscat and Oman don't live in tents with no running water anymore.  Like most GCC countries, including the Emirates, Oman is well-developed: people live in nice houses or appartments with AC, there is running water which is generally safe to drink, there are health inspectors in the restaurants, the cars are from the 21st century, and everything else you associate with a developed country.

Being a desert city, there was, however, one thing which no one felt it was necessary to develop: namely, a drainage system.  So, to make the general destruction worse, large parts of the coastline are still underwater.  All this happened in what used to be one of the tidiest, cleanest cities in the Gulf region--it is now buried in water, mud, and dust.

I took a few pictures of the sites I did see.  My Omani friends were very eager to have me do this, although what you will see here is very minor by comparison with other areas.  I'm going to let the photos do the talking:

The following photos come from what used to be a very nice beach.  When I was there, a lot of people were burning the aftermath, which I don't think is clear from these two pictures.  But there was a lot of smoking and charred debris.

Submerged Palms

Felled tree

There used to be a road here where there is instead a giant chasm of water now.  If you click on the picture, you can just barely see where part of the road broke off and crumbled into the sea.  I think that the dirt road beside it was formed later to help with relief.

This used to be a road

We passed a car lot, housing quite literally hundreds of brand new cars--I would estimate between 500-700.  Not one of them survived the storm in tact.  People were driving by and staring in amazement at this spectacle.  Folks got out of their cars to take pictures, because it was all just so macabre.  I want you to take a look at this:

Car pile up1

Car pile up 2

Car pile up 3

This is what the underside of a car looks like

I have no other words for the situation.

Keep in mind, this is only the tame version of some of the things that have happened.  It is expected to take another 3-4 weeks to clean up the mess, and I don't know how much longer to rebuild what's been lost. 

If you are interested in monitoring this situation, please see the following link.  It discusses the destruction, relief efforts, and mentions what you can do to help if so inclined:
http://gonu.blogspot.com/

If anyone in my family would like to donate to me, I am happy to buy a few supplies in town and run them back down to my friends in Oman.